America's renewable energy capacity is now larger than coal
"Coal has no technology path," said Jeff McDermott, managing partner of Greentech Capital Advisors, an investment investment bank focused on pure energy. "It has nowhere to go, but extinction."
The pure energy revolution is on the verge of a tipping point.
Milestones come despite President Donald Trump's promise to throw up the coal industry by cutting environmental regulations. Analysts say this is because the shift towards renewable energy is driven more by economics than regulation.
"The government can push the brakes or accelerate this movement – but this progress will continue to move forward," said Matthew Hoza, senior energy analyst at BTU Analytics consulting firm. "Mostly, the public calls renewable energy."
Sun and wind boom
In April, the total available installed capacity for coal was 257.48 gigawatts, according to the FERC report.
Renewable energy – including not only sun and wind, but also water, biomass and geothermal steam – took narrowly over coal by climbing to 257.53 gigawatts of installed capacity, FERC said.
Not surprisingly, the shift was driven by rising sun and wind.
While new coal-fired power stations were not added this year, the FERC report showed solar units of 102 units, or 1,473 megawatts. Wind also increased by 18 units, or 1,545 megawatts.
The FERC report measured capacity, not the actual amount of power generated. And renewable energy usually has lower capacity utilization than other fuels. In other words, just because renewable power has the potential to generate so much power does not mean it will actually – at least not yet.
Renewable production is not expected to exceed coal on an annual basis for several years.
